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dining

Putting up food in Panama
photo and article by Eric Jackson

The tropical climate causes certain cultural differences from temperate zones. In a place like Minnesota, those who would live off the land must in about four months preserve enough food to sustain themselves for the other eight months of the year. Here, there's always something fresh in season.

These cultural differences are often reinforced by laws and markets. Panama imports chocolate candy and canned soup from the United States. Even though we might produce these things better and more cheaply and export them to points north, combinations of government or corporate policies in most cases prevent this. On the non-commercial side, post-9/11 restrictions have cut off one of the great attractions for the small band of isthmian residents who preserve things --- you are no longer allowed to can mango chutney, dry fruit or otherwise preserve tropical produce and send it to family or friends in the states. This measure is supposedly to keep Osama bin Laden's minions, who are known to have engaged in the business of importing and exporting honey, from using such activities as a ruse to wage biological war on the USA.

The bottom line to all of these discouraging factors is that things like food dryers, lids for mason jars and other paraphernalia for preserving food are often hard to find in Panama.

Nevertheless, very few things are in season throughout the year. There are months when you can't get limes, so it's nice to bottle lime juice while you can. If you want saril, it only comes fresh for about a month at the beginning of dry season but if you dehydrate it you can have it all year long. This year's peak cashew season has come and gone (but some of us candied and packed away cashew fruit) and we are at the height of a mango season that will be over in a couple of months or so. If you don't make your chutney now you will probably have to go to a store and buy an imported variety if you want it later.

This reporter has occasionally seen mason jars, or their lids, at some of the larger Melo farm and garden supply stores, and has in unusual instances stumbled across household-sized electric food dryers for sale at places like Rodelag. You can find a smoker to preserve seafood, meat or poultry and one of the local hardware stores from time to time. Generally, however, you need to depend on friends or relatives coming from abroad to bring in the food preservation supplies you need.

Shown above are some of the products of a recent weekend of food preservation: canned aji chombo peppers (those brown things in the jar with them are raisins), bottled lime juice, candied and canned ginger slices, sweet and spicy versions of chutney, dried papayas and mango-maracuya-lime jam.